Migration 5.0 -> 5.1 - was Re: [GRASS5] current release branch

[Glynn Clements]

Bernhard Reiter wrote:

> > 2. run code reformatting software (below is from Apache):
> >     indent -i4 -npsl -di0 -br -nce -d0 -cli0 -npcs -nfc1 <files>

I personally don't care about the exact style chosen, but I
definitely feel that we should solicit comments first.

> Does that help much?  The complete file has to be reread and controlled 
> by a human than. I'd rather not use such a tool.
> The formatting might be bad, but on the other important information
> can get lost with the new formatting.

Yes, it matters. If you are making a change to dozens of files which
are spread across the entire tree (and I expect to be doing a lot of
that), you don't want to have to manually change your editor's
formatting style on every single file.

Similarly, if you are analysing or eliminating "cloned" code, it's a
lot easier if you can just use "diff" (which won't work if the two
instances are formatted differently).

For any large software project, a single formatting style is
essential. It really doesn't matter what that style is, so long as its
the same for every file.

-- 
Glynn Clements <glynn.clements at virgin.net>